


ARIES

by Ryenan



Series: Star Signs [4]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Magical Stiles Stilinski, Possession
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-01
Updated: 2018-04-01
Packaged: 2019-04-16 21:07:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 528
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14173410
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ryenan/pseuds/Ryenan
Summary: You might not be afraid to die, but that doesn’t mean you’re ready.





	ARIES

**Author's Note:**

  * For [RebaK1tten](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RebaK1tten/gifts).



> Thanks to RebaK1tten for the sweet comments that encouraged me to pick these back up!

There’s so much he needs to do – graduate high school, for starters. College would be nice, falling in love, getting a dog. Moving out of this god-forsaken town, where you learn at sixteen what a mob beating feels like and at seventeen how death tastes.

Learn at nine how heavy blame can be, at ten how stitches on your forehead will sting with every sob, at eleven how to master lying. Learn at twelve that you need to use the pens they have at the station to fake a signature, for an extra boost of credibility.

Learn at eighteen that you’ll die, even with all you’ve learned, before you really get to live.

 

 

“I thought he was the smart one, Macha.”

“He is just a boy, he hasn’t had millennia to learn like you have, Nemain.”

“A shame. Which one is next?”

“Look, he’s still holding on. There must be more magic in him than I thought.”

The three women are just smears of black and white in Stiles’ vision, some combination of blood loss and magic distorting their forms. Stiles has been here before, however, lying on the floor and bleeding, thinking he’s going to die. It’s old hat, the chill in his limbs and slow drag of his thoughts. This is a little worse than he’s ever been before, but it’s nothing new. Nothing scary.

“Little one, are you still in there? Are you going to solve the riddle with your dying breath? I can save you if you can answer before you bleed out.”

He’s not afraid to die – death is less fearsome than his daily life, at this point – but he doesn’t want to die. He has things to do.

He’ll have to add “avenge his father’s death” to the list of things he needs to do. Maybe just “grieve,” not avenge. Not against the Morrigan.

 

 

_“I’ll tell you the answer, Stiles, if you only let me in. Let me in, Stiles, I can save you.”_ The voice is strange, hissing and stuttering, like a snake across every ‘S’ in his name. How long has it been there, in the back of his mind? What is it? Does he really care?

_“Okay,”_ Stiles consents, unthinking, and he feels the warmth start to return to his limbs even as his heart grows cold.  _“What’s the answer?”_

 

 

“Ajar.”

The Morrigan turn to look at where he is curled up on the floor.

“What was that? Did you solve the riddle, little one? When is a door not a door?”

“When it’s ajar.”

Stiles won’t die today. The Morrigan lift him off the ground and set him back to rights, not noticing or not caring about the passenger coiled in his mind, his magic, his skin.

They leave a trail of bodies in their wake, but they leave, and will not return so long as Stiles is there, his attachment to Beacon Hills protection from the Morrigan.

Such a shame he can’t protect the town from himself, from the creature in his mind. But he might graduate high school before the monster takes over completely, might manage one of the things he needed to do.

 

He might.


End file.
